dies, China, and Australian squadrons respectively. The Imperial Government wil bear the whole of the cost of the East Indies squadron and, as has been said, the Australian squadron will be maintained by the Commonwealth authorities. It is estimated that the annual subsidy of the New Zealand Government will suffice for the maintenance of the China squadron, and any shortage in this direction will be made up by the Imperial Treasury. In addition to this annual subsidy the New Zealand Government adheres to its intention to pre. sent a capital ship to the Navy. stead of the Dreadnought that was originally proposed, however, an Indomitable will be substituted, and this will be the ship to be sent to the China station.

In

Canada will provide entirely for its own coast defence, and proposes from the beginning to divide her fleet into two equal portions, to be stationed on her Atlantic and Pacific seaboards. This division of the future naval strength of the Dominion is not regarded favorably by naval home experts, who hold that it would be better strategy to concentrate the whole of the Canadian warships in the Atlantic and to leave it to the powerful new Pacific teet to protect her western coast. It is hoped that even yet these counsels may prevail and that Canada may consent, if only for a time, to postpone the creation of a Pacific squadron. The present proposals of the Canadian Government provide for the building of about a half-dozen protected cruisers of the Bristol type and some twenty destroyers of the River type. Thus the fleet will, as a commencement, prove a comparatively weak one and will need to be greatly strengthened by ships from the British Navy in the event of a war with a combination of Powers strong enough upon the sea. Under these circum

stances the contention that the whole of the defence of the western coast of Canada should be left to the Pacific fleet-with the assistance of course of further battleships and cruisers specially detailed for this purpose when the order to mobilize the British fleet for war is issued-is greatly strengthened. There are reasons for believing that communications upon this subject are now passing between the naval authorities at home and the Dominion Government, as a result of which it is hoped that Canada will consent to concentrate the whole of her naval strength in the Atlantic. Canada is also to take over the control of the dockyards at Esquimalt and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Whether these shall be presented by the Mother-country as a free gift to the Dominion or whether the latter shall pay for the expensive plant and machinery they contain at a price, is to be determined upon by friendly arbitration. Probably the former course will be ultimately adopted, with the understanding that the Dominion Government shall at once proceed to bring both yards up to date and should construct at both Halifax and Esquimalt graving-docks of a size large enough to accommodate the largest battleships and cruisers yet projected.

The question of docks for ships of the new fleets to be called into existence is one of the utmost importance, and is by no means being lost sight of either by the Imperial or by the Colonial authorities. There is already at Hong Kong a dock large enough to take either a St. Vincent or an Indefatigable, and another one close to it is now projected. Sydney, too, also possesses a commercial graving-dock of a size sufficiently large to provide accommodation for the cruiser-battleship it is proposed to station in those waters. Another dock of large size is to be built at Bombay with as little

delay as possible, and the new gravingdocks that are being constructed here in connection with the great Victoria Dock scheme will also be available for use by ships of war when the necessity arises. The question of personnel for the new Colonial navies is one that is causing some amount of perplexity at the present time. For some years to come it is obvious that neither Canada nor Australia can provide a tithe of the men that will be necessary to man their fleets. In these circumstances volunteers will have to be called for from the British Navy. That a sufficient number of both officers and men will be forthcoming for this purpose is of course certain. The crux of the whole question is, can Great Britain spare the necessary men for the new Canadian and Australian fleets? At the present time new capital ships of large size are being constructed and put into commission every few months, and each of these requires a complement of, in round figures, a thousand men. This means a constant and everincreasing strain upon our recruiting staff, and the task of finding additional men for the Canadian and Australian fleets is one that is contemplated with some misgiving by the authorities, since this drain will come at a time when, in all probability, we shall be preparing to keep sixteen Dreadnoughts in commission in home waters.

To attract Canadians and Australians of the most suitable class to the fleet The Outlook.

it will be necessary to offer rates of pay considerably in advance of those now prevailing in the Royal Navy, owing to the demand for labor that exists in these Colonies at the present time. Since it will scarcely be possible, and certainly not fair, to offer less pay to the men who volunteer from the Navy for service in the Colonial fleets, the best men will inevitably be tempted from the Imperial Navy to volunteer for this work. This is a state of things that cannot be contemplated with any feeling of equanimity by the authorities at home, especially at a time like the present, when the recruiting for the Navy is undeniably slack. It will certainly be necessary, therefore, to discover new sources of supply for the personnel of the fleet at home until such time as Canada and Australia are in a position to undertake the work of manning their own fleets for themselves. This will probably not be for at least ten years after these Colonial navies are called into existence. Thus it will be seen that though the principle of an Imperial scheme of naval defence has at length been approved and the Colonies are willing to take a share of the burdens involved on to their own shoulders, there are many pressing, and indeed vital, questions yet to be dealt with before the great fleet, with its world-wide duties, can become an accomplished fact.

filling him with visions of writing wonderful things during those summer months. Whatsoever he may have written the reader receives none of it but is presented with a very good English romance of the pair betrothed in childhood, and resolutely determined not to fulfil the contract; and an American romance of to-day with a rich heroine who quietly appropriates the man whom she loves. castle radiates mysteries of sorts, all destined in the end to be explained and in the end come two weddings and two happy households. Mr. Watson's skilful management of a mystery is an old story; he contrives to keep this mystery mysterious almost to the moment when the joybells begin to ring. Little, Brown & Co.

The many

The Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company make their customary generous autumnal contribution to young people's literature. "The School Four" by Albertus T. Dudley, is a story of school-boy athletics, like the author's Phillips Exeter Series, and, like those, is spirited and sympathetic in its portrayal of the things which appeal to a school-boy's emotions. There are half a dozen illustrations by Charles Copeland. The Lookout Island Campers, by Warren L. Eldred, with illustrations by Arthur O. Scott, is another stirring book for boy readers, its incidents taking place in a boys' summer camp, and including some rather exciting episodes. "Dorothy Brown" by Nina Rhoades, illustrated by Elizabeth Withington, is for girl readers,-for somewhat older readers than the author's "Brick House" books, but introducing some of the characters of the earlier books at a later stage in their lives, when confronted with something of life's mystery and romance. For younger girls Alice Turner Curtis writes "The Little Heroine at School," the second volume in the

very engaging "Little Heroine" series; while for still younger girls Amy Brooks adds "Prue at School" to her "Prue" books. Both of these are illustrated.

The illustrations of Mr. Andre Castaigne's "The Bill-Toppers" are admirable, for they are his own; the text is woefully poor, for its personages and its scenes are mean, and the author endeavors throughout the greater part of the book to substitute the thoughts of his personages for direct narrative. His subject is the life of a girl reared as a bicycle trick performer and he traces her growth almost from day to day, describing her merciless drilling, and the sordid domestic cares occupying her when not on the stage. Her inevitable marriage to the first man who comes in her way, her equally inevitable disgust and return to her parents are minutely and pitilessly set forth, so pitilessly that she becomes uninteresting, and the author's skill in anatomizing her utterly mean emotions, desires, and ambitions is all that holds the attention. Never having been taught anything but selfishness, she is a mere incarnation of greed and one cannot believe in the reality of the love with which the author endeavors to endow her on the last page. Evidently he intended her to be repellent, and he succeeds so well that the reader pities the man who loves her. Such a task is unworthy of an artist whose eye and hand so clearly discern and portray the beautiful. Bobbs-Merrill Co.

It is small wonder that one who well performs the fascinating task of constructing a consistent whole from the literary and historical fragments of a past era should prefer the work to that of telling a story of to-day, and admirable as was "Four Roads to Paradise," Mrs. Maud Wilder Goodwin must have had less pleasure in writ

ing it than came to her as she penned her newest book, "Veronica Playfair." She takes her reader and her heroine to Twickenham to meet the Dean of St. Patrick and Lady Mary, and Gay and the good and wise Marthy Blount, and later St. John and Beau Nash appear and Franklin admires the heroine's beautiful eyes, and sighs but sighs in vain. With such a group of talkers to produce it the conversation is uncommonly good, and if chance should give the book a reader quite unacquainted with eighteenth century England, he could hardly distinguish the real from the imagined personages. Few writers of this school of novels hold the balance so truly, but practice has given Mrs. Goodwin rare skill, and one watches the unfolding of Franklin's character forgetting that it is not of her creation but is a synthesis from the autobiography and Poor Richard, and other documents. Again, one finds one's mind occupied with the consideration of what the real Veronica and her lover may have done, forgetting that they are but creatures of the imagination. The excellent illusion created by the author is aided by the artist, Mr. Lester Ralph, who has given the book four really remarkable colored plates, extraordinary examples of the advance made in a branch of illustration developed in a few years, and as carefully studied as the text. Little, Brown & Co.

Perhaps Signore R. DeCesare's "The Last Days of Papal Rome" may seem somewhat cold-blooded to the partisan, be he "White" or "Black," but to an impartial American it is all the more valuable because of its entire detachment from any Italian party, and its author's frank enjoyment of the picturesque and romantic elements of history, wheresoever they may disclose themselves. It is not a study of the church or of Italy, but of Rome, the

wonderful city which has developed an individuality of character perceptible alike to those whose ancestors for centuries have lived within the walls, and to those who come from afar to gaze upon her for a day and a night and a morrow. The author reckons her chief traits as "keen and characteristic scepticisms, before which the strongest impetus dies down, and the most rooted convictions yield, and that law of adaptability before which the city at all times has bowed and has caused its conquerors to bow." The chapter headings give scarcely a hint of the variety and curious nature of their contents, of the extraordinary complications of the life with which the seven hills teemed; the survivals of the past, sometimes solid masses of antiquity, sometimes aggregations of particles so triturated by invasion, revolution, usage, as to be recognizable as units only by the readiness with which they separate at a touch; the popular wit and humor, not too elegant or refined but at their broadest subtle, and implying subtlety in those to whom they were addressed; the brutality even as late as 1870 so coarse that a formal statute was necessary to check practical joking of the kind that puts tar on the seat of an unoccupied chair, or secretes a dead mouse in the bed of a guest. The outline of the history from 1850 to the day when the Papal flag was lowered at Castle San Angelo is given clearly enough amid all these incidentals, but one does not heed it while absorbing details. Such a book as this accelerates the coming of perfect mutual knowledge. Certain novelists, poets, essayists, and letter-writers have been active in paving the way to acquaintance: this book carries the road forward by a long space. It is illustrated with interesting portraits and has an introduction by Sir George M. Trevelyan. Houghton, Mifflin Company.